Rise To The Crown- The Story of the Third-In-Line

_*Twenty-Eight (2009.08)

Young people love adventures, and so do William and Kate. But it was William's idea of taking their family on a little camping trip in mid-August, at nowhere but Loch Ness.

Yeah everyone knows about the Loch Ness Monster. Though no one expected to see it, everyone who traveled there anticipates it. Honestly, no one would ever go to such a deserted place in the middle of nowhere for nothing.

To get to Loch Ness, they would have to:

Go on a 2-hour plane ride to somewhere in Scotland, during which Delly slept.

Be on a bus for 1 hour, and Delly slept right through it.

and finally, get on a boat.

Kate woke her daughter up when they were about to get off the bus.

"Mumma, where are we?"

But her Papa answered, "This is Scotland, darling."

Scotland, the place where St Ninian, Scotland's first Christian missionary landed in 397AD; the place "Gale force winds, Heavy Rain and a Cold Northerly Breeze" is just everyday weather; and the place where Delly's Papa proposed to his Mumma.

But Scotland to Delly, was just a boat, a river, and lying on Papa's shoulders, looking at the waves outside.

BoREd.

... until the captain of the ship said something about a monster living under those waves.

"Papa, monster!"

William wasn't too happy about Delly interrupting his conversation with Mr. Barret. So he brushed it off, "yes yes. monster, monster, maybe you can find it"

Parents, never say something when you don't mean it, cause the kids just go for it.

So, Delly withdrew herself from the conversation between the adults and shifted her focus, once again, to the water. This time instead of looking at the waves, she looked at the things underneath them. She was sure that there must be something, but she couldn't see clearly what it was. It could just be the boat's shadow, for all we know.

_

The lodge where Delly and her parents stayed at was a family hotel kind of thing. The Barret family, which consisted of John and Carly Barret, and their two children, Theo (5) and Madison (3), lived in the house. There is a small lodge about 100m away from the house, which the Barrets rented to visitors for 80 pounds a night, 60 pounds a night if you stayed for more than 3 days. The lodge was originally built by John's grandpa as a storage room. Back then, the Barret family was a pretty well-off family in this little town. But after some generations and when it got to John Barret, things went south.

John had a bunch of friends back in his college days, they were drunk one night and decided to buy some stocks in the hopes of being rich one day. Later, they found out that the company was a scam, and they lost almost all of their money from that. But, that wasn't the worst, John fall in love with Carly. Carly is an orphan and has an older brother Chris, who is jobless and has a terrible alcohol addiction. 

Growing up, Chris was a fatherly figure to Carly. In her mind, her brother always loved her, cared for her, and put her interests before his. However, Chris's entire personality changed after a car accident he had 14 years ago when he was 25, in which his beloved girlfriend was killed. Chris turned to alcohol, left his job as a receptionist, and gave up on life. 

It hurt Carly so much to see her brother like this, so she found him a rehabilitation center for alcohol. Right now in 2022, rehab centers in the UK cost about 1000 pounds per week. But the cost was much higher 13 years ago. Carly and John are at best, middle class, and cannot afford such amounts of money for such a long time.